That red stuff....

.....was low. Her hemoglobin ( red blood cells ), and iron were quite low. She needed to have a blood transfusion yesterday. She has never needed one before, it was a trip. It was insane to see a stranger's blood dripping into my child. I told the donor "Thank you" out loud... i'm sure the universe carried it to him/her. Her lips and skin were pale, but her oxygen levels were beautiful at 99 and 100%, with the help of just .5 a liter of oxygen. I didn't understand why she was pale, when she was reading fine on oxygen levels. I also didn't understand how she was at 100% with such a small amount of oxygen support, but when we would take the teeny bit of 02 away, her levels would drop instantly. It had me perplexed. A wonderful nurse explained to me that it could be that her blood count is low, and she is going to suggest a CBC (complete blood count). Red blood cells are your iron rich cells that carry oxygen through your body, if you do not have enough of them, your iron is low (anemia), you don't have enough oxygen flowing through you as you need, and your heart rate is increased because it has to work extra hard to pump blood through your system. Kira's heart rate has been high since she was admitted, but I figured it would not come down because she was clearly going through a painful recovery, and her heart rate is one of our leading signs of distress with her. The donor blood transfused for 4 hours, but within the first hour, her lips and gums were pink again. The skin around her eyes.. healthy looking and her heart rate relaxed. Yay! I thought I have seen everything with Kira, but this was new territory for us. She must feel like a whole new woman. There was a large part of me that was thinking * what IF since birth she was always had seriously low levels of hemoglobin that secretly went under the lab radar and this transfusion is what she needed for 8 years to wake her up*. Long shot I was sure, impossible even. But hey, you can't help the brain from going on little vacations every now and again. Care for a laugh? When the transfusion was over, I was snuggling with her and asked her if she can hear me, and if she is awake, and yes, I was a little excited to see if I could perhaps get a response. See the thing is, she has had a million CBC's in her life. Her hemoglobin has always been fine. I knew this wasn't going to be her medical mystery finally revealed. I also know that being anemic isn't going to cause her microcephaly and seizures. But since my Momma brain went there, I figured I would honor it and test out that theory. Nope, she's still Sleeping Beauty. She must feel so much better! She will now have iron added to her daily meds. One of my Sisters from another Mister came to see us last night with her beautiful girls, and Kira was so happy to see her. As soon as Margarita was talking to and touching Kira, she kept rolling her eyes open. Such a beautiful response. Mog has always had a way with her. There's a deep connection there, that one cannot explain. It's pretty cool. Okay, there is my update about Sisseroony. Overall, she is doing fine. Morphine is keeping her comfy and her wound has the wound vac on, but is not draining, which is great. They are going to teach me how to do her I.V. as she will need to come home on I.V. antibiotics for up to 6 weeks. Her infection was pretty gnarly in there, and needs the big guns. I HOPE I will just need to access the tube hanging out of her port, and not need to do the poking myself. I am a needle phobe. I do know that her port line needs to be changed once a week, not sure yet if I will bring her to clinic to do that or handle that myself. I think I need to practice on an orange or something a few hundred times first, do they still do that in school? ;) Alight, anyhoo.. chat with you all soon.